Musical Fidelity KW500 and Rowland Continuum S2

It is also worth pointing out that Musical Fidelity makes products along a broad range of price points. So when someone is not a fan of Musical Fidelity, it may be that they are referring to their lower priced, lower quality items. Top-of-the-line MF gear like the kWs may be quite different from their gear where more compromises (power supply for example) need to be made to hit a certain price point.

I don't know Rowland well, but my impression is that all of their gear is aimed to the high-end market.

So in general, MF vs JR in general is not an apples to apples comparison. Apples-to-apples would be similarly priced JR and MF gear.

Haven't heard the kW500, but love my kW linestage and phono preamps. Great pieces. That kW preamp had been the longest lasting piece of gear in my system until it and my Yamamoto DAC were recently replaced by a DEQX HDP4. It will be sad to sell those 2 pieces of gear.